1. Technical Field
This invention generally relates to facilitating electronic commerce (e-commerce) over a network and, more particularly, to making payments through mobile devices using a novel mobile payment application (“app”).
2. Related Art
The number of persons who shop online or electronically has increased dramatically in recent years. This is due in part to the ease in which consumers can find and pay for an item and complete a purchase transaction therefor in a secure manner and without the necessity of having to go to a seller's physical location to do so. Currently, such online shopping is predominantly effected through a consumer's PC or laptop, and as a consequence, payment providers, such as PayPal, Inc., of San Jose, Calif., and Google, Inc., of Mountain View, Calif., acting in the role of a “payment service provider,” have developed payment or checkout “flows” that enable an online consumer to make an online payment for a purchase quickly, easily, and safely.
More recently, an increasing number of consumers are making purchases and payments through his or her mobile device, such as a “smart phone,” or a “tablet” device, such as an Apple iPad or the like. This provides greater flexibility than using a personal computer (PC), as the consumer can make a purchase virtually anywhere, as opposed to using a PC, which is typically located at the consumer's place of work or residence. However, in a typical mobile payment situation, the consumer is still obliged to go through a web-based payment flow. This can be cumbersome and time-consuming for a number of reasons. For example, the display of a mobile device is typically much smaller than that of a PC, which results in the consumer having difficulty reading and entering transaction information on the screen. Secondly, mobile device keypads or keyboards are typically much harder to use than a standard PC keyboard, resulting in a higher likelihood of entering erroneous data.
The problems associated with making a payment through a mobile device using a web-based checkout flow can result in a consumer deciding to forego the purchase altogether, or to delay the purchase until the consumer can effect it on a PC, in which case, the consumer might not make the purchase at all. This results in lost sales for the merchant, as well as the consumer missing out on a desired purchase, for example, a purchase available at a sale price that is time-sensitive.
It would therefore be advantageous to have systems and methods by which a consumer can easily and reliably make a payment from a mobile device without having to go through a typical web-based checkout procedure.